A research team led by the UCLA School of Dentistry has been awarded a $20.6 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish one of five Human Virome Characterization Centers in the United States.

This initiative is part of the NIH Common Fund Human Virome Program, which seeks to identify the diversity of viruses that naturally inhabit the human body, often called the virome.

At the center to be established in the next few months at the UCLA School of Dentistry on the Westwood campus, researchers will focus on the roles of virus’ immune regulation, neurodevelopment and disease processes, particularly in the body’s oral, gut and brain systems.

Key members of the team

The research team is led by Yvonne Hernandez-Kapila, associate dean of research at the UCLA School of Dentistry. One of the principal investigators is Clara Lajonchere, deputy director of UCLA’s Institute for Precision Health. Also on the team are researchers from other UCLA Health departments, as well as from Baylor College of Medicine, the Mayo Clinic, UC San Diego, USC and Pennsylvania State University.

“This novel effort is an enormous undertaking, and it promises to change medicine,” Hernandez-Kapila said in UCLA’s announcement. “The Human Virome Project aims to characterize the ‘healthy’ human virome, remove technological roadblocks, and define the virome’s role in human health and disease.”

This grant may be impacted by the Feb. 7 guidance directive from the National Institutes of Health capping coverage of indirect costs for research grants at 15% of the direct research grant amount. Indirect costs include items such as lab equipment, facility rent, utilities and some lab personnel; the direct cost is principally payments to the research team.

Indirect costs typically range from 20% to 60% of the direct cost amount. On Feb. 10, a Massachusetts federal judge temporarily blocked the NIH cap from going into effect.